PCLaw API
PCLaw is practice management and legal accounting software used by law firms to manage clients and matters, capture time and expenses, generate and post invoices, handle trust/IOLTA funds, payables/receivables, bank reconciliation, and the general ledger—all in one system. For a tech
What is PCLaw?
PCLaw is a legal practice management and accounting platform from LexisNexis designed for law firms. It centralizes client and matter records, time and expense capture, billing and collections, trust/IOLTA compliance, payables, and firm financials.
Core product areas include:
- Time & Expense Tracking (activities, task codes, billable flags, rates)
- Matter & Client Management (responsible lawyer, practice area, status, budgets)
- Billing & Invoicing (prebills, approvals, posting, payments, common e-billing formats)
- Trust Accounting & Compliance (IOLTA handling, deposits/withdrawals, safeguards)
- AP/AR & General Ledger (chart of accounts, bank reconciliation, posting cycles)
- Reporting (WIP, AR aging, realization, matter profitability, trust balances)
Common data entities:
- Clients (client number, name, contacts, billing preferences)
- Matters (matter number, client linkage, responsible timekeeper, status, rate schedule)
- Timekeepers/Users (roles, permissions, default rates)
- Time Entries (date, hours, rate, activity/task codes, narrative, billable)
- Expense Entries (date, amount, cost codes, billable)
- Bills/Invoices (prebill/final status, totals, line items, delivery format)
- Payments (date, amount, method, applied invoices)
- Trust Accounts (account metadata, balances)
- Trust Transactions (deposits, withdrawals, transfers linked to matters)
- Rate Tables (standard, client/matter-specific rates and exceptions)
- Activity/Task Codes (ABA/UTBMS-aligned where applicable)
- Chart of Accounts & Journal Entries (posting, reconciliation)
- Users/Roles & Audit Events (who did what, when)
The PCLaw Integration Challenge
Operational teams rely on PCLaw daily, but turning desktop-centric financial workflows into API-driven automation can be challenging:
- Posting cycles & approvals: Prebills, edits, approvals, and posting to AR/GL must be orchestrated without duplication or premature posting
- Trust safeguards: Withdrawals must be tied to client/matter and never overdraft; audit precision is required for compliance
- On-prem environments: Many firms run PCLaw on-prem with Windows authentication and SQL backends; secure, reliable automation needs careful session and connectivity handling
- Rate and code complexity: Matter-specific rate tables, discounts, and UTBMS codes require normalization for consistent downstream use
- iManage alignment: Mapping PCLaw matter numbers to iManage workspace keys and keeping documents (invoices, trust statements) in sync across systems
- Long-running jobs: Batch billing cycles and postings span minutes; they benefit from polling or webhooks
How Supergood Creates PCLaw APIs
Supergood reverse-engineers authenticated flows and underlying system interactions to deliver a resilient API endpoint layer for your PCLaw environment.
- Handles username/password, Windows/SSO, and role-based access securely
- Maintains session continuity with automated refresh and change detection
- Normalizes client, matter, time, invoice, and trust objects into consistent schemas
- Aligns with customer entitlements and permissions to ensure compliant access
- Supports high-volume operations (time capture, batch billing) with polling or webhooks for long-running jobs
- Bridges to iManage by synchronizing matter identifiers and routing generated documents to the right workspace or folder
Getting Started
- Schedule Integration Assessment
Book a 30-minute session to confirm your modules, licensing, and authentication model.
- Supergood Builds and Validates Your API
We deliver a hardened PCLaw adapter tailored to your workflows and entitlements.
- Deploy with Monitoring
Go live with continuous monitoring and automatic adjustments as PCLaw evolves.
Use Cases
Matter Provisioning & iManage Workspace Sync
- Push new PCLaw matters and auto-create matching iManage workspaces - Keep responsible lawyer, practice area, and matter status aligned across systems - Attach posted invoices and trust statements back to the correct iManage workspace
Time Capture & Billing Automation
- Streamline time entry creation from emails or calendar events - Generate prebills, route for approval, and finalize posting with audit trails - Export invoices in common legal e-billing formats and archive PDFs to iManage
Trust Compliance & Reconciliation
- Ingest trust balances and transactions to power compliance dashboards - Validate allowable withdrawals against matter balances with automated checks - Deliver monthly trust statements to designated document libraries
Financial Reporting & Audit Unification
- Centralize WIP, AR, realization, and profitability metrics - Capture evidence for billing adjustments and approvals - Export immutable audit logs for partner reviews or external audit
Technical Specifications
Authentication
Username/password with MFA and SSO/Windows auth where enabled; supports service accounts or customer-managed credentials
Response format
JSON with consistent resource schemas and pagination across modules
Rate limits
Tuned for firm-scale throughput while honoring permissions and usage controls
Session management
Automatic reauth and session rotation with health checks
Data freshness
Near real-time retrieval of clients, matters, time, invoices, and trust activity
Security
Encrypted transport, scoped tokens, and audit logging; respects PCLaw role-based permissions
Webhooks
Optional asynchronous delivery for long-running workflows (e.g., batch invoice posting, trust statement generation)
Latency
Sub-second responses for list/detail queries under normal load; billing job completion reflects underlying system behavior
Throughput
Designed for high-volume time capture and batch billing cycles
Reliability
Retry logic, backoff, and idempotency keys minimize duplicates and support at-least-once processing
Adaptation
Continuous monitoring for UI/API changes with rapid adapter updates
Frequently asked questions
Supergood supports workflows commonly used for practice management and legal accounting, including Clients/Matters, Time & Expenses, Billing & Invoicing (prebills, approvals, posting), Trust/IOLTA, AR/AP, and Reporting, subject to your licensing and entitlements. We scope coverage during the integration assessment.
We operate with customer-managed credentials and secure connectivity to your environment. Sessions are refreshed automatically, and we implement health checks, retries, and idempotency to safely interact with posting cycles and trust safeguards.
Yes. We can generate prebills, capture edits and approvals, and finalize posting to AR/GL with immutable audit records and optional document delivery to iManage.
Yes. We map PCLaw client/matter identifiers to iManage workspace keys, route posted invoices and trust statements to the correct workspace/folder, and keep status metadata aligned.
We validate transactions against matter/client eligibility and balances, block overdrafts, and create auditable events with rationale and timestamps. We can also deliver monthly trust statements and reconciliation outputs.